The Doctor of Nursing Practice program prepares leaders in advanced nursing practice to bring evidence-based knowledge into the practice arena, improve health care outcomes and strengthen the leadership role in guiding complex care delivery and nursing education.

Are you ready to become a key player in today’s complex health care environment? Does a scholarly role that translates evidence-based knowledge into practice and care delivery interest you? Vanderbilt’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program is built upon our internationally recognized advanced practice nursing programs. With a Vanderbilt DNP degree, you will use nursing and other scientific findings to design programs of care delivery that are innovative, economically feasible and have significant impact on health care outcomes. The DNP program offers an innovative, state-of-the-art curriculum that includes two study tracks in Advanced Practice, Advanced Systems Practice, and Executive Leadership.

Multiple ways to enter the program are offered. If you are starting with:

Health care agencies/organizations who are practice partners and support applying knowledge and skills from coursework to their practice settings

Actively practicing faculty who will mentor you in evidence-based knowledge

Learning built upon Vanderbilt’s 100-year history of leadership and excellence in nursing teaching, practice and research

DNP Program Objectives

Central to the DNP curriculum is the application of evidence-based practice methods within practice settings throughout the program of study. Evidence-based practice is classically defined as the integration of best research evidence with practice expertise and patient values to facilitate healthcare decision-making. The goals of the DNP program are to prepare nurse scholars to:

Our DNP program is fully accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) andmeets recommendations of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties.